The present invention relates to a bail arm changeover mechanism for an external spool type fishing spinning reel.
Conventionally, in a bail arm changeover device, when pushed to unlocked it when in its line-rewinding position, the bail arm is moved to its line-releasing position by means of a spring force and held in that position, whereas when the line is rewound, the bail arm is automatically moved from the line-releasing position to the line-rewinding position by the force of forward rotation (the line-rewinding force) of a rotor. Thus, the line can be cast without requiring a manual operation of moving the bail arm from the line-rewinding position to the line-releasing position. Such a bail arm changeover mechanism is known, for example, from U.S. Pat. No. 2,966,314.
Such a mechanism is provided with operating components including an actuator arm, a fitting, a connector shaft, etc., outside the rotor, in addition to the bail arm lever. Accordingly, with the provision of such a mechanism, problems such as the line easily tangling occur. Moreover, the external appearance of the reel is cluttered.
Further, a conventional bail arm changeover mechanism in which an operating lever is rotatably supported on a pair of opposed arms provided outside a rotor so that the bail arm is moved from its line-rewinding position to its line-releasing position by the rotational operation of the operating lever is known, for example, from Japanese Laid-Open Utility Model Application No. 17171/1984.
However, in that conventional mechanism, either in a mechanism of the type in which the operating lever is rotated by being pulled upwardly or in a device of the type in which the operating lever is rotated together with the bail arm lever, since the bail arm lever is directly rotated in the direction to establish an open state of the bail arm by the operating lever (that is, in the direction toward the line-releasing position of the bail arm) and therefore has to be turned to a position passing over a dead point of a torsion spring which elastically urges the bail arm toward both the line-rewinding and line-releasing positions, there are problems in that not only is the amount of displacement of the operating lever excessive, but also a large force is required to operate the operating lever, resulting in a poor operating performance.